This blog, written by Thomas E. Rutledge, focuses primarily on business entity law in Kentucky. Postings on contract law, contractual and statutory construction, and the entity law of other jurisdictions appear as well. There may as well be some random discussions of classical, medieval and renaissance history.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

The Last Viking Invasion of England

The Last Viking
Invasion of England

Today is the anniversary of the
battle at Stamford Bridge in 1066, it ending, for all intents and purposes, the
Viking invasions of England.Beginning
in the 8th century, England had repeatedly suffered both Viking
raids and invasions/migrations.The
great King Canute II was an aspect of this chain of events; he was himself
Danish.

Earlier in 1066, King Edward
the Confessor died.The crown was
assumed by Harald Godwinson.His dispute
with William the Bastard of Normandy over whether Harald had previously agreed
to surrender the crown to William would ultimately lead to the Battle of
Hastings.In the meantime, Harald Godwinson
had to deal with an invasion from Norway led by another claimant to the throne,
Norwegian King Harald Hardrada; Hardrada was supported in this invasion by
Tostig Godwinson, Harald’s Godwinson brother.

Two factors were crucial to the
resolution of the battle.First, the
invading force was dispersed on both sides of the river.Thus, when the English army attacked the
Norse contingent on the south side of the river, they outnumbered their
opponent.Second, the intelligence of
the Norse army failed; they did not realize the English army was already
present and ready to launch an attack.It
being a warm day, the invading army had left much of their armor on board their
ships.Initially, the English forces
largely massacred the Norse forces on the south side of the river.They then proceeded to attack over the
bridge, an effort that, in what was an apocryphal story, was delayed by a
single Viking yielding an ax who single-handedly killed some forty soldiers
before he was himself slain.With the
English having now crossed the bridge, the two armies again faced one
another.Ultimately, the Norse army
would collapse consequent to its lack of armor and the deaths in battle of both
Harald Hardrada and Tostig. The few
Normans who survived the battle entered into a truce with Harald agreeing to
leave and never return.While the
invading fleet filled some 300 ships, the Norse survivors of the battle were
able to return home in only 24 of them.